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Service to Pelham Bay Park began on December 20, 1920, when the Pelham Line was extended from Westchester Square.[3][4][5] Service to Pelham Bay Park was originally provided by a mix of through and shuttle trains during the 1920s.[6]:73–74

In 1981, the MTA listed the station among the 69 most deteriorated stations in the subway system.[7]

Fare control, station agent, MetroCard machinesElevator at back of station beyond escalators, near corner of Westchester Avenue and Bruckner Boulevard

G

Street level

Exit/entrance

Pedestrian overpass and headhouse

This is an elevated station which has two tracks, one island platform and two disused side platforms. The tracks end at bumper blocks at the north end of the platforms. The station was formerly set up as a Spanish solution with alighting passengers using the side platforms and boarding passengers using the island platform. Now all passengers use the island platform.[8]

During 2005, rooms were located on the side platforms for temporary crew use while the crew quarters at the north end of the station was rebuilt. At the south end is a staff-only crossover bridge between the center and west side platform. It also used to connect to the east side platform but that portion has been removed. There is also a tower and crew facilities at the south end. There are old style signs which are covered over on the main platform.

Pelham Bay Park is the only New York City Subway terminal that does not use numerical track labels, but rather track labels based on the compass points of the world (i.e. East track, West track).[9] Punch boxes exist, however, at the south end of the island platform where the corresponding track numbers (Track 1 and 2) are used,

Fare control is in the mezzanine below the platforms. There are two staircases, an escalator, and an elevator that lead to Westchester Avenue. There is also a pedestrian bridge from the station entrance that crosses the Bruckner Expressway and leads to Pelham Bay Park.[10] The station's elevators were installed in December 1989, making the station one of the earliest to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The elevators were renovated from June 2015 to April 2016.[11]

As part of the 1968 Program for Action, the Pelham Line would have been extended to a modern terminal nearby in the Co-op City housing complex, and the Pelham Line would have been converted to B Division standards so lettered trains could use the line.[12][13] Because of the 1975 New York City fiscal crisis, most of the remaining projects did not have funding, so they were declined.[14] If built, the extension would have been completed by the mid-1970s or early 1980s.[15][16]

In the novel The Taking of Pelham One Two Three by Morton Freedgood and its film adaptations (the 1974 original and the 1998 and 2009 remakes), the train that gets hijacked leaves the Pelham Bay Park station at 1:23 p.m. (hence the title). Realizing that it would become too much of a reminder to the public, after the 1974 film's release, the New York City Transit Authority, for many years, banned any schedule of a train leaving this station either at 1:23 in the afternoon or in the morning. Eventually this policy was rescinded, but due to the superstitions involved, dispatchers have continued to avoid scheduling a Manhattan-bound train to leave at 1:23.[17]